Audio Electrical Wiring Considerations Basic Branch Circuits in Homes And
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
EELE 217 Science of Sound 2017 1 Audio Electrical Wiring Considerations Basic branch circuits in homes and businesses (U.S.) Service Panel Black Wire ("hot") Circuit Breaker (from power company and White Wire (wide) power meter) (neutral) (narrow) Ground Bus Bar Green or Bare Wire Cold Water Pipe (protection ground) IF the outlet is wired correctly (never EVER risk your life on this assumption!!), the white wire ("neutral") should be the wide blade and the electrical potential should be near zero potential. In the U.S. the black wire ("hot") is 120 volts RMS (root-mean-square) sinusoid, 60 Hz repetition frequency, with peaks ±170 volts respect to the neutral. Keep in mind that the colors are purely customary: the color itself doesn't influence how the electricity flows in the circuit! The green (or bare) wire is the protection ground, and the internal wiring of an appliance will have this conductor connected it to the metal chassis of the appliance. The green wire does not conduct any current under normal circumstances, EXCEPT if there is a fault in the appliance that allows the "hot" wire to come in contact with the chassis. In the case of a fault the ground wire short circuits the "hot" wire through the chassis and back to ground, which should draw enough current to trigger the circuit breaker to open, de-energizing the outlet. This protection is important, because without it a fault could energize the chassis, and then a person could get shocked by simultaneously touching the chassis and a nearby grounded surface, inadvertently completing the circuit. Appliances with a polarized (wide blade) plug should be designed so that the exposed conductors (like the metal ring of a screw-in light bulb) are connected to the neutral wire, and the "hot" conductor has the power switch, as shown below. This arrangement has the power switch positioned to de-energize all the components down-stream from the switch, making it less likely a user would get a shock if changing a light bulb or an internal fuse with the appliance inadvertently left plugged in. The appliance will still work if the outlet is not wired with the proper hot and neutral orientation, but it is safer with the correct wide-blade neutral orientation. EELE 217 Science of Sound 2017 2 Power Switch Fuse Device Electronics (wide blade) Homes and businesses may also have GFCI outlets. GFCI stands for ground fault circuit interruptor, which describes special circuitry inside the outlet itself that monitors the current in the hot wire and in the neutral wire: if there is even a small difference between the hot and neutral current, it means current is leaking somewhere in the appliance (like as a shock current going from the appliance through a grounded person!) and the device will quickly turn off the outlet. GFCI outlets usually have a reset switch and a test switch on the faceplate. If the GFCI trips, don't just reset it, but check out what might be triggering the imbalanced current. Sometimes electric motors will trip the GFCI even without a fault condition. Unbalanced and balanced audio wiring Unbalanced audio interconnects, also known as single-ended connections, use two wires between the source device and the receiving device. One of the wires is the electrical ground (zero potential) and the other wire carries the analog voltage representing the audio signal with respect to the ground wire. Thus, the source device (such as a CD player) and the receiving device (like an audio amplifier) have their electrical grounds connected together via the interconnection cable. signal wire “ground” wire (signal common) Any induced currents or voltages cause a difference in the ground reference at each end—and that produces audible hum and noise Unbalanced connections are inexpensive and work reasonably well for consumer devices that are located close to each other, like a stack of gear in a stereo cabinet. However, the unbalanced connection is susceptible to both electric field pickup and magnetic field coupling. Electric field pickup is due to the presence of electromagnetic waves, particularly broadcast radio and TV signals, but also emanations from computers and other devices with high EELE 217 Science of Sound 2017 3 frequency switching circuits. The interconnection wiring acts like an antenna, and small radio frequency (RF) currents are induced capacitively into the wiring by the electromagnetic fields. Since the receiving device is observing the voltage between the single signal wire and the ground wire, these RF currents can cause a noisy signal in the audio frequency range due to nonlinear mixing in the wiring and the circuitry. Magnetic field pickup is often caused by nearby wiring in the building's power system. The currents flowing in the building's wiring cause magnetic field loops encircling the conductors, and if the magnetic field passes through the loop created by the two conductors of the unbalanced connection, a 60 Hz hum can be picked up. The problem can also be caused by ground loops. A ground loop occurs when different devices are interconnected by unbalanced wiring, forcing the ground reference of each device to be shared. Any currents induced in the ground wire cause a difference in electrical potential at each device, and the receiving device interprets that difference as part of the audio signal. Magnetic field pickup and ground loops can be avoided by keeping interconnection wiring as short as possible, twisting the conductors in the unbalanced cable, and keeping any loops in the grounding system as small as possible. Balanced audio connections, also known as differential interconnects, avoid several of the problems inherent in unbalanced wiring—at the expense of more complicated audio circuitry and three wires instead of two in the interconnect cable. A balanced audio connection has the signal presented as the voltage between two wires, neither of which is the ground potential, and the receiving device has a differential amplifier that looks only at the voltage difference between the two wires. The two signal wires are usually twisted around each other during the manufacturing process so that any stray magnetic fields will not couple very well into the signal wiring: each twist would couple the magnetic field in the opposite direction as the prior twist, thereby canceling out any induced signals. A third wire is the ground wire, and typically the ground is used as an electric field shield by incorporating a conductive foil or mesh wrapping inside the cable that surrounds the two signal wires. signal wires (twisted pair) differential differential driver amplifier ground wire (shield) The signal is the difference in voltage between the two signal wires, and NOT referenced to ground. Induced ground currents do not corrupt the signal. Most professional audio gear is designed with balanced interconnections in mind. Most consumer gear (and even most "audiophile" stereo and a/v equipment!) uses unbalanced EELE 217 Science of Sound 2017 4 interconnections, probably because it is less expensive. Care must be taken when using a system in which some devices are balanced and some are unbalanced: it is generally best to use an audio transformer or a "direct box" when hooking up unbalanced gear to balanced system in order to avoid electromagnetic interference and ground loop issues. Phantom Power Condenser (capacitor) microphones generally require a preamplifier to be located in the microphone housing very close to the capsule. This is because the capsule itself generates insufficient power to drive a signal into the microphone cable. The preamplifier needs to be powered somehow. Some mics have a battery inside, while others use an external supply. A common way to power condenser mics in professional systems with balanced wiring is to use phantom power, which is a circuit that provides an equal DC voltage with respect to ground to both of the balanced signal wires. Because the balanced receiver is designed to respond only to the difference between the two signal wires, including the same DC voltage to both signal wires does not disrupt the audio signal. In the microphone a circuit receives the DC voltage from both signal wires and uses it to power the microphone's preamp. inside the mixer 6.8 kΩ 47 µF 100 Ω Microphone balanced +48 VDC 47 µF audio 6.8 kΩ ~100 µF Audio Connectors The audio field has a very large number of connector types, and many types come in both male and female configurations. Not all manufacturers choose to wire their connectors in the same manner, so it's a good idea to look at the users' manual or technical diagrams to ensure different gear will interconnect as expected. Unbalanced connections are typically RCA cinch connectors or phone plugs. RCA refers to "Radio Corporation of America," a well-known 20th century audio manufacturer. The RCA connectors generally have the inner conductor as the signal wire and the outer conductor as the ground. Phone plugs come in several sizes and diameters, such as 2.5mm, 3.5mm, 1/8", 3/32", and ¼". A typical unbalanced phone plug has a "tip" conductor (signal) and a "sleeve" conductor (ground). NOTE that some phone plugs and cables have three conductors and can be used to carry a stereo pair of signals (e.g., left channel and right channel), using the three wires: the "tip" is generally—but not always—the left audio channel, the "ring" is typically the right audio EELE 217 Science of Sound 2017 5 channel, and the "sleeve" is the common ground for both channels. The three conductor phone plugs are often called "TRS" plugs, meaning "tip, ring, sleeve". L R G Some “TRS” plugs may have four conductors, tip, two rings, and the sleeve, or TRRS.